Jimmy Cowan has been in England for less than 10 days but he already knows what awaits him. As a gentle warmup on the first morning at his new club the All Black scrum-half was told to cycle 20km in 30 minutes "to blow a few cobwebs out" and his first taste of West Country rugby as a replacement proved a similarly breathless experience.

Thankfully for Cowan it ended happily, the Cherry and Whites surviving a late Bath flurry to establish themselves in the top half of the Premiership table with just one loss from their opening six matches. The home team took a long time to rouse themselves having gone 10-0 down and should have won more comfortably but the 30-year-old Cowan was given an early taste of the Shed in full cry and clearly relished what he saw.

"It's what I expected; huge physicality and a different culture of rugby," said the former Southland stalwart, who won 50 Test caps for New Zealand. "The speed of the game is the same but there is a difference from the way we play the game back home. I like that physicality and I like to keep the ball in front of my forwards. It's a style that's going to suit me."

Nigel Davies, Gloucester's director of rugby, also reckons the feisty newcomer will add an edge to his squad once he settles in. "He's got a real presence and an air of confidence about him which will rub off on the players. Once he's been here a couple of months I'm sure we'll see the best of him."

Once the Gloucester pack finally rumbled into life after the interval there were glimpses of a half-decent team emerging. Any side containing James Simpson-Daniel is always going to be reliably dangerous out wide and the little maestro's footwork in the buildup to Rob Cook's 52nd-minute try was the most delicious moment of the contest. There was nothing wrong with the Bath defence but they rarely threatened in attack after a promising start that included a smartly taken try by Stephen Donald within 33 seconds of the kick-off.

Had it not been for a couple of hairline calls that ruled out try-scoring efforts by the sharp Shane Monahan and Henry Trinder, the visitors' frustrated head coach Gary Gold would have been even more unhappy. Bath have notnow won in front of the Shed for six years and Gold's assistant Toby Booth correctly talked of "a longer road" to travel if they wish to re-emerge as the West Country's finest.

It was not quite the smooth ride, either, that referee Dave Pearson would have liked in his final game before retiring to take up a role coaching Six Nations officials. Luckily Pearson has a good sense of humour and will argue there is no better swansong for a leading referee than a rousing chant of 'You Don't Know What You're Doing'.